Chu Orange Has Grown Up and Wants Independence: Where Does Benlai Life Go from Here

At this time, I should have been with Benlai Life, taking the friends from Xinnongtang to visit Old Chu in the Ailao Mountains of Yunnan, and under the gaze of media from all over the country, holding the "Learn from Chu Orange as Master" event.

But a few days before the event, a colleague from Benlai Life told me that the event was cancelled because Old Chu was in poor health... But a few days later, I saw on WeChat Moments the launch ceremony of Chu Orange Manor, and Old Chu was in high spirits.

You may wonder whether I, the hall master, am about to complain that Benlai Life deceived me. No, otherwise this article should be called "The Broken Promise of Benlai." Because the logic behind this matter is far from that simple.

Chu Orange Has Grown Up

On Singles' Day this year, in the Tiantian Orchard flagship store, Chu oranges sold for 79 yuan/box, with 8 jin per box, and more than 20,000 boxes were sold in total. Converted into weight, that is exactly 80 tons of oranges. These 80 tons of oranges were basically on par with the amount of goods Benlai Life obtained from Old Chu this year. (The issue of orange grading was not taken into account.)

This was only the amount for one day, and this year the channels selling Chu oranges were far more than just Benlai Life and Tiantian Orchard. (Search Tmall and you will find 42 stores.)

Regardless of what Chu Orange's output was this year, when an originally ordinary orange grove needs a Chu Orange Manor built to welcome worshippers from all directions, perhaps this was not Old Chu's own intention, but it cannot change the fact that Chu oranges are not enough to sell. Everyone scrambles for them, yet Benlai Life is drifting farther and farther from the center of the "Dance of Chu Orange."

I think this is probably why Benlai Life was unwilling to stake everything this year and invest its media power in the Chu Orange project! For Benlai Life, this meritorious guardian entrusted with an orphan, it seems the child has already grown up!

Old Chu had been growing oranges for no less than ten years, but the history of "Chu Orange" is only two years. Think back to two years ago, when Chu Orange was still just an orange, cramped in one corner of Yunnan, and its selling price was no different from ordinary oranges. Now it has soared to prominence and become a rare commodity in great demand, with more and more sales channels. Yet as the operator of this project, Benlai Life has gradually faded out of the leading role. Thinking about it must bring a mixture of feelings.

Helplessly, what Benlai Life signed was a "first authorization," not an "exclusive authorization." A difference of one word makes a difference of thousands of miles.

Some people advised Benlai Life, saying, do not be depressed. Old Chu is the "father of Chu Orange," and the genes are there. As for you, even if you are the "mother of Chu Orange," once the child is raised, he will eventually establish a family and a career. You cannot expect him to stay by his mother's side forever. As long as he remains grateful, that is enough. (I never expected that a melodramatic family ethics drama, like a child entrusted to others in infancy, raised by them, and then returning to his biological parents with no role left for the foster parents, would actually happen in the agricultural industry too!)

That reasoning is correct! The battle of Chu Orange made Old Chu himself, and in fact it also made Benlai Life's standing in the fresh food e-commerce field. So recently they also raised the slogan "Find the Next Chu Orange." The genes for "building Chu Orange brand assets" are all with Benlai Life! If the traffic entry point is gone, then create another one.

The Industry Reality Behind the Awkwardness

Although China's agricultural products are extremely abundant, they have no brands. Producers have land and products, but no brand assets. The brands we usually talk about are mostly regional public brands, such as West Lake Longjing and so on. Because they are public land, not private property, situations of fishing in troubled waters often occur. The current level of testing and the current state of integrity make the cost of deception and counterfeiting extremely low. For example, for more than 99% of the tea sold on the market, no one knows where it came from, who grew it, or who roasted it. So how can we guarantee that old farmers will not mix in a little fake tea?

From ancient times to the present, "those with permanent property have perseverance." Emerging brands like Xiangtu Xiangqin and Vijidani came up with a new approach: let producers own brand assets. They call producers agricultural artists, put their portraits on the products, and make the producers' integrity the last line of defense against counterfeiting. If you do not take other people's matters seriously, you still have to protect your own reputation, right?

Once this is done, an awkward situation like that between Benlai Life and Chu Orange arises! The child has grown up and wants independence. The party that originally built the brand assets now seems to have become the weaker party, as if everything done before was in vain and has nothing to do with them anymore.

So is it wrong to help producers own brand assets?

History tells us that when something cannot be understood now, stretch out the timeline and look at it. May I ask, 50 years from now, what should the supply of agricultural products and consumers look like? Let me make a bold guess: farms directly supply consumers, with no intermediary merchants at all. By that time, every producer will have their own brand and a fixed group of consumers. After all, the internet can break through channels, but it cannot break through planting and production.

Therefore, letting producers own brand assets is absolutely not wrong, and under real conditions it is also the most cost-effective means of restraint.

Then how can the creators of brand assets be guaranteed a share of the benefits?

Agriculture itself has a certain public-interest nature, but business must follow business principles. I think that in the process of "finding the next Chu Orange," Benlai Life will certainly also consider whether it is possible to take a stake in upstream bases or hold shares in brand assets. After all, selling goods earns profit, and agriculture still has a large space for value-added dividends.

In the short term, "brand marketing and membership" are the core assets of an agricultural enterprise, especially for an internet agricultural enterprise, which can happily say how many users it has. But in the long term, the supply chain is the core asset of an agricultural enterprise and is irreplaceable, because land and environmental resources are what is scarce. If fresh food e-commerce does not do well, it is all related to a company dealing with these two contradictions at the same time.

Finally, one can only learn from Luo Pang's wave-making theory.

He said that the internet age was never suitable for building towers, but for making waves. A wave cannot be possessed by you; what you possess is the potential energy to keep making waves and the genes passed down. Thinking this way, I especially want to sing a song called, "Sister, boldly walk forward, do not turn back, girl~."